FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

U.K. National Security Strategy Aimed at War with Russia and Thought Police at Home

March 28, 2018 (EIRNS)—The British issued a new Strategic Security Capability Review today, revising their 2015 National Security Strategy, with a bloodcurdling call by Prime Minister Theresa May herself for mobilizing for war with Russia, as well as expanding “thought police” control over social media under the guise of countering Russian “fake news.”

In the introduction, written by May, she states that since 2015,

“threats have continued to intensify and evolve and we face a range of complex challenges at home and overseas: the resurgence of state-based threats and increasing competition between states; the undermining of the international rules based order; the rise in cyber-attacks from both state and non-state actors and the wider impact of technological developments; and the increase in threat posed by terrorism, extremism and instability.”

Leaving no doubt who the target is, she goes on:

“Over the past year in the U.K. we have witnessed appalling terrorist attacks in London and Manchester. But also a brazen and reckless act of aggression on the streets of Salisbury: attempted murder using an illegal chemical weapon, amounting to an unlawful use of force against the U.K.”

In the body of the document, it states:

“The resurgence of state-based threats, intensifying wider state competition and the erosion of the rules-based international order, making it harder to build consensus and tackle global threats.... The indiscriminate and reckless use of a military-grade nerve agent on British soil was an unlawful use of force by the Russian State. It happened against a backdrop of a well-established pattern of Russian state aggression. Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea was the first time since the Second World War that one sovereign nation has forcibly taken territory from another in Europe. Russia has fomented conflict in the Donbas and supported the Assad regime, including when the regime deliberately ignored its obligation to stop using chemical weapons. Russia has also violated the national airspace of European countries and mounted a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption, including meddling in elections.”

On the “thought police,” the document states:

“Communications are increasingly being used by our partners and adversaries alike for strategic real-world advantage. Traditional channels have been largely discarded in favour of digital and social media platforms. This is combined with a decline of trust in traditional sources of information and the era of so-called fake news. In parallel, the rules of the game have changed. The democratisation of information, and the means to exploit it, has allowed hostile actors to exert disproportionate influence in competition with the public interest.”